The POMPHUIS BIKERS CHRONICLES

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bonova

Race Dog
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
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Bike
KTM 950 Adventure S
POMPHUIS BIKERS CHRONICLES:

I'm sure that i've left out stuff, and some of the other guys will no doubt post pics and stuff  :thumleft:

The Chaps:
Garrick Ponte, Claude Deyzel (Crazy Horse) Koos Wessels, Ryan Leliard, Peter How (bonova).

Garrick
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Koos
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Ryan
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Claude
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Peter (me)
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The Bikes:
4 x BMW 650 DAKARS, one x 2003, 2 x 2006 and 1 x 2007 models, Mileage all around 30K, 1 x KTM 990 Adventure S – mileage – 6000 Km, 1 x BMW X-Challenge Mileage 1300 km – that makes 6 bikes, with 5 guys…

The Plan:
Our plan was to travel through Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Namibia, as well as a lot of SA. We wanted to do as much dirt and off-road as possible, and didn’t want a back up vehicle (no one would be able to say nasty things like they say about Ewan and Charlie’s trip  ;D
We also wanted to rough it wherever possible, meaning camping.
We estimated 15000km and 2 ½ months for the trip.

Claude:
‘The inspiration for this trip started along way back.  Our first trip took place in 2002 when a group of Varsity friends went on a journey up to Northern Tanzania on a project called ‘Vetbooks for Africa’.  6 of us traveled in two bakkies for 36 days.  As we finished our studies we decided to get together every two years, our first reunion being Zanzibar in 2006.  During this holiday we rented bikes for a day, giving bike riding 101 to many of our mates, which led to a very entertaining day.  This day claimed many victims including suturing one of our friends, many close encounters with the traffic and the disappearance of a few, to be found many hours later. 
It was there and then that we decided to repeat this adventure on a larger scale.  An approximate date was set and 5 of us committed to the trip.’ 

Peter:
A bike trip of this magnitude, with no back up, is not for pissies, and one must choose your mates carefully to make sure that when the proverbial shit hits the fan (and it’s going too…), everyone keeps positive and pulls together. I don’t think anyone could choose a better bunch of chaps. As Gazza would say about taking some idiot on a trip like this: “I’d rather baste myself in honey and play catch with a Grizzly bear”.

Ok, so it all started a long while ago planning wise. What with all of us being spread across the globe (SA, UK, AUS), it took some coordination.
Being a long trip (3 months holiday), the main thing was to plan to quit our jobs…which 4 of us successfully did, and one managed to get 3 months off work – sweet!

Then, there was the small detail of bikes. Koos and Garrick didn’t have a bike with less than a year to go, let alone a licence. Koos managed to get a good deal on a bike early in the year, and had a fair bit of practise pre-trip. He also just managed to get his licence a few days before leaving. Garrick left it to the last milli-second, did his learners a week before, and rode his bike for the 1st time a mere 3 days before leaving… Interesting…. I recall the story of him making it about 5 meters before dropping it nicely on the cement, scratching his new helmet and denting his pride.

Now this deserves mentioning: Garrick had never ridden a bike in anger before. Apart from some tar road riding training in the UK, which amounted to a few hours only (trying to squeeze in a licence before the trip), he was basically a virgin biker.
He’s got co-ords though, I’m sure he’ll manage…..
We bought his bike while we were still in the UK from Wes in Cape Town (the-wes) and Claude went and collected it for us. It was a 2007 Dakar with 30000km on the clock. Also worth mentioning, was that all things being equal, Garrick could not touch his feet on the ground while astride his shiny new steed (with standard seat on….and it had a standard seat on J)

Claude and Garrick met up in Mamesbury, where they did some last organizing, before heading to Napier to pick up Koos. Here Koos and Garrick traded seats, Koos being happier with a standard one, and Garrick getting slightly more foot time with the lowered seat from Koos – all going well…
The Plan was for them all to meet myself and Ryan in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, in a few days, travelling some nice scenic routes on the way up.
Everything went a bit pear shaped, Injuries were had, a bike was smashed, beers were drunk. But I wasn’t there, so Claude will give the account…..

Claude:
Garrick and I left Malmesbury on the morning of the 15th travelling down to the southern Cape to meet up with Koos.  Koos’ brother travelled with us for two days.  On our way to Malgas we met the crazy Irish guy Mike for the first time.  He has been travelling for a year and a half from Ireland down the west coast of Africa.  This being his turning point to start his journey up the east coast of Africa back to Ireland.
Outside Riversdale Garrick had a bad accident after hitting a hidden muddy road at about 100km/h.  If it wasn’t for the Leatt Neck Brace and ATGATT his trip would have ended that day.  Luckily these bike can take the punch and the local bike expert, Bertie, had the bike up and running in 2 days.  We would just like to thank Bertie, his family and friends who treated us like long lost family while Garrick and his bike were in rehab.
Koos, Garrick and I left for Queenstown stopping along the way to say farewell to the respective concerned parents.

I in the mean time was blaming myself for the accident and worrying that I shouldn’t have gotten Gazza into this. Anyway, all turned out fine, and they were on their way after a few days, x-rays, pain-killers, some Chinese parts on Gazza’s bike (handle bars, mirrors etc), a missing windscreen and some seriously panel-beaten panniers.
I was also worrying for Ryan, who lost his passport 5 days before the trip – in a bike shop in AUS, 12 hours before his flight to SA. The Omens were piling up.

A little pretrip ride past Wildschutsberg Game Farm
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However, 3 days pre leaving date (from Queenstown), we were all sitting pretty on the farm.
Work started in earnest on the bikes now. Tyres and tubes needed changing, uni-filters needed fitting, new sprockets and chains needed fitting, new battery for the one bike, 12 v sockets, radiator protectors, fork protectors, panniers and racks needed tweaking, spares and equipment needed to be counted and checked, and generally, the bikes needed going over.
Claude and myself got out bikes serviced in East London at KTM and BMW respectively as our bikes were still in the warranty period..
We were still waiting for Ryans’ passport at the Mozam embassy, and international drivers licences for Ryan and myself that were in Bloem. With some frantic couriering it all got there in time - sort of.

Working on the bikes
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